Babbitt

Plot

With his portrait of George F. Babbitt, the conniving, prosperous real-estate man from Zenith, Sinclair Lewis created one of the ugliest, but most convincing, figures in American fiction -- the total conformist. Babbitt's demons are power in his community and the self-esteem he can only receive from others. In his attempts to reconcile these aspirations, he is loyal to whoever serves his need of the moment: time and again he proves an opportunist in business practice and in domestic affairs. Outwardly he conforms with "zip and zowie", is a "big booster" before the public eye; inwardly he converges day by day upon the utter emptiness of his soul -- too filled with rationalizations and sentimentality to sense his own corruption. "Babbitt" gives consummate expression to the glibness and irresponsibility of the hardened, professional social climber.